Bowl Blitz Invitational — Games versus Reality Final Standings

In December of 2011 and January of 2012, fans of college football and EA SPORTS NCAA Football 12 helped cover all 35 Bowl Games here at STAT BOX STORIES for the BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL. This week, we’re taking a look at some of the statistics that came out of those 35 games. Today marks the close of our time with the inaugural BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL, as we look at how the games played in NCAA Football 12 compared to the results of the real-life Bowl Games.

Well, after 35 entries and a week’s worth of statistical analysis entries here at STAT BOX STORIES, our work with the BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL comes to a close today. I would once more like to thank everybody who volunteered their time and effort to help get all of the Bowl Games covered in NCAA Football 12. Today’s focus is seeing how close the video game playthroughs came to the real-life results, so let’s start with how many playthroughs matched the actual wins:

Out of 35 Bowl Games, 19 played for the BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL matched up with the actual result; a solid 54.29% for a slight majority. It definitely wouldn’t have been a solid bet to use the game results to put money on the line, but at least more games ended up correct than games that didn’t.

The individual team scores which ended up furthest off from the real-life result list was topped off by Cal’s score in the Holiday Bowl; in NCAA Football 12, the Golden Bears put up 55 points, but in real life they only managed 10 against the Longhorns for a difference of 45. Computer-controlled Washington only managed 14 points in the game playthrough, but they kept pace with Baylor in the real-life Alamo Bowl to the tune of 56 points; a 42-point difference. Two other team results had a final difference of over 30 points; Penn State’s 31-point difference in the TicketCity.com Bowl (45 scored in-game, 14 scored in real life) and Auburn’s 30-point difference in the Chick-fil-a Bowl (13 scored in-game, 43 scored in real life).

On the flip-side, the closest game results Top 10 saw five individual teams scoring exactly the same number of points in NCAA Football 12 as they did in real life. Virginia in the Chick-fil-a Bowl, Florida in the Gator Bowl, Clemson in the Orange Bowl, Georgia in the Outback Bowl, and Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl all matched scores between the two versions of the game. There was only a single point’s difference between Texas A&M’s scores for the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, and the same differential for Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl.

From a combined score differential standpoint, the Alamo Bowl between Washington and Baylor had combined scores which were furthest off from real-life; the final points difference was 57. One other game had a combined score differential of over 50 points; the TicketCity.com Bowl between Houston and Penn State, which had a 54 point differential. The Holiday Bowl between Cal and Texas had the third highest point differential, coming in at 47.

For the “game within a game” of BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL–where participants were trying to have the closest score between their NCAA Football 12 playthrough and the real-life game result–the closest total game score came in a game played by Eric Veneziano–psuexv–in the Gator Bowl between Ohio State and Florida. The two point differential between the game version of the Gator Bowl and the real game makes Eric the first-ever STAT BOX STORIES BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL winner! The next closest total score was the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl between Purdue and Western Michigan–played by yours truly–which ended up 7 points off. Congratulations to Eric for the incredible closeness of his result!

To close things out today, here is the individual scoring information for each of the 35 Bowl Games–in chronological order of when they were played–from the Bowl Season. Click on the comparison image to go to the original entry here at STAT BOX STORIES.

Thanks for checking out this past week of statistical recaps and analysis here at STAT BOX STORIES! Keep watching the site in the future as regularly-scheduled content returns in the next few weeks!